Less than a week after I returned from Asheville, I packed the family up and we flew to London for the holidays. I got to brew another beer with Fergus Fitzgerald at Adnams in Southwold, this time an 8.5% Double IPA (California Style!) that will be dry-hopped with Centennial, Citra and Mosaic. This beer should be available in Wetherspoons pubs in mid-January.
It’s become a tradition-my first beer after arriving in the UK is always a Fuller’s!
I love seeing historical brewing sites-this was in London.
I am very curious to see how people react to our beer, since the alcohol is much higher than what beer drinkers in Britain generally find acceptable. It’s an interesting point of difference between the US and UK beer drinking cultures. When having beer discussions with folks in the UK, the alcohol content is one of the first things always mentioned when describing a beer. Whereas, in the US, some of the first things we mention are the IBUs and/or hop varieties. It’s part of the culture in the UK to drink multiple pints in a session at a pub, so the alcohol content is kind of an important consideration, I get it. But it also sometimes seems a little extreme, like when we brewed our first beer for JD Wetherspoon back in 2008, a 7.2% IPA that many people wouldn’t even try because the alcohol was so high. I’m sure we’ll have people on both sides of the fence with this beer, and am looking forward to seeing any comments. I do think craft beer fans will really like this beer.
The recipe sheet for our Double IPA.
Mash-in complete. West Coast IPA!
This was the street our cottage was on. At the end of the street, turn right and you’re at the Adnams Brewery.
Cool historical poster at Adnams
Hop Dosing system at Adnams.
We mashed in at 5:00am, and so I got to get some shots of an amazing sunrise from the Southwold shoreline at about 8:00 am.
On Christmas Eve, we went back to London and spent 3 days there with the family. It was a great opportunity, the kids had never been out of the country before.
I have a lot of pictures of my son’s hand.
We took a Thames River Cruise on Christmas day, and saw this guy piloting an amphibious car.
London in the evening was beautiful:
